“Environmental threats are among the most grave impediments to lifting human development … The longer action is delayed, the higher the cost will be,” warns the report, which builds on the 2011 edition looking at sustainable development.

I can empathize with my family members, but no one else. I guess it’s progress.

I first noticed this with Mona Charen. Who? I don’t even know if she’s still around. But, anyway, once upon a time ADHD was one of those things conservatives thought was some sort of liberal plot diagnosis. I have no opinion on the diagnosis of or treatment of ADHD, but for some reason there was a period when it pissed conservatives off because oh who the fuck knows Benghazi. Conservative media personality Mona Charen would regularly write these “ADHD IS REAL!!!” columns because, you know, she had an ADHD kid.

First we are talking about a Republican here so one should at least consider the possibility of political opportunism on Portman’s part. gee, my son is going to come out, being part of a political movement that thinks gayness means being less of a citizen, how do I get some political mileage out of this. So assuming Portman is being genuine, he and Charen exemplify a kind of neural misfiring when it comes to empathy. They can only see issues when they personally experience them. They lack the character, imagination, intelligence, humility or whatever, to see themselves in someone else’s shoes. I tend to think that is not an insurmountable personal flaw, but a large and very fundamental one. It is something shared by authoritarians throughout history.

Restaurant horror show: How waitstaffs are mistreated. Almost 10 percent of the U.S. workforce is in the restaurant industry. Why is it legal to treat them so poorly? Being a capitalist I find this embarrassing. Capitalism could work – everyone make a decent living, have good working conditions, have health care, clean air, beautiful cities, great education – but only if that capitalism is informed by fairness, a deep sense of one’s humanity. The tip of the pyramid, and their sycophants, tend to see life as a contest; how much they can extract from other with the barest minimum of compensation.